Is it already time for new cables and strings?

[Christopher.Reed]

Let me start with a little back story.

I am fairly new to archery but have been completely
obsessed since firing my first bow at a shop about two months ago. I purchased a Hoyt Ventum 33” on the 4th of July because, well, Murica! My bow is set to 74lb draw with a 30.5” draw length and I fire 40-120 arrows through it daily in an effort to get comfortable with my bow, strengthen my body, and refine my form.

I say all of that ask this: the serving on one of my cables has come loose and the actual string appears to be fraying.

I am going to go out on a limb here and say this isn’t “normal” wear and tear issue for a bow that I have owned for 6 weeks but…

Note: the main string and other cable look brand new aside from light fraying on the main string which I touched up with my first healthy application of wax.

1. Can I just replace one cable?
2. Would it be better practice to replace the string and cables in a matched set?
3. What string/cable setup works best for my scenario?

I plan to shoot 550-650 grain arrows with high FOC (15-20%) on Sirius Orion’s (0.166 w/ 200 or 250 spine depending on which my bow prefers) with fixed broadheads (150+ grain).

Thank you in advance for any advice you have to offer.


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[Zac]

Your a little late in the game so I would go with a quick turn over set if you plan on hunting soon. Threadz ships the same day. Also they prefer that you call. Have a pair of calipers handy so you can mic your nock.

 

[Wapiti1]

To me, that looks like some sort of external damage. Not just shooting wear. It's got a lot of abrasion, and the pulley looks dinged.

To answer your questions, and this is my take, so others will vary, but.......

I change the string usually twice before the cable set gets changed. I also keep the old ones for spares. I've just put on cables if my string is newer and in good shape. It's already shot in and set, so why go through the annoyance of a new string.

At this point, yes, you can swap just the cable. Just understand that it will take a bit to settle in. Even if it is pre-stretched, it will settle. So, you'll tune, then re-tune after a hundred or more shots.

A 452X cable and string set is what I would get from Catfish Customs. If your string is good, I'd change the cable only, and keep the new string for later.

Is this the right way to do it? No idea. It works, and my bows tune fine.

Jeremy

 

[Christopher.Reed]

I have babied it since I bought it but it was a one year old model (21’) that was discounted so anything is possible. I suspected that it wasn’t usual wear and tear but thank you for the confirmation.

I inspected the cam and didn’t see any visible damage either but when I take it back to the shop I will have them verify.


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[LONE HUNTER]

I have babied it since I bought it but it was a one year old model (21’) that was discounted so anything is possible. I suspected that it wasn’t usual wear and tear but thank you for the confirmation.

I inspected the cam and didn’t see any visible damage either but when I take it back to the shop I will have them verify.


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If you look at past threads on the interweb it seems like the 21 ventums, at least with factory strings chewed through cables in that spot. Yours is by far the worst i have seen of the pictures that have been shared.

 

[stanginthe11s]

heres my opinion, can you change just the bad cable? yes however its always best to have the same string material and size so unless you're getting a cable from hoyt I would just replace the full set. now, I don't know that bow so if its known to have problems you may be changing cables alot but ill give you 3 causes of chewed serving, 1 of which will warrant new custom strings.
1) scratch, nick or dent in the cam. 2) too much cam lean. 3) string to fat for cam grooves. if your problem is #3 you will have to actually talk with a string builder like mike at catfish. the cables will be made with either less strand or thinner serving or a combo of both. the other 2 causes are pretty obvious and easy.

 

[Christopher.Reed]

Thank you for your input! I didn’t even consider cam lean but I will bring that up to my shop tomorrow as well.

I see lots of tweaking and tuning in my future as I am waiting on new arrows and broadheads to arrive as well.


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[stanginthe11s]

if your shop has a caliper have them remove the cable and measure the width of the cam groove then measure the good cable. you don't want it to be a tight fit.

 

[Christopher.Reed]

I wanted to follow up after my visit to the shop for anyone that was curious and thank everyone for their input.

Hoyt is sending a new top cam along with strings and cables which means I will be without my bow for about a week waiting on shipping (my shop requested expedited shipping but we will see).

My shop was super helpful but said that was the worst cable they had ever seen. After hopping on WebMD I am convinced that my bow has a sever case of “rapid onset cable fatigue”.

Hoyt customer service left me with two options: Send the cam and strings and be without my bow for a week or I could send the bow into Hoyt which could take a couple weeks. I opted to have them send the cam and strings so I could get back in action and tuned prior to the season starting but I did confirm that I had the option of sending it in after the repair should the cam replacement not fix the issue as the bottom cable had a small amount of wear as well.

Mildly frustrated at the result because I have had the bow for six weeks. More frustrated that I felt like I was finding my groove and now I’m like a drug addict with no drugs.

I did get my string measurements and will be ordering another set of strings to keep as a “backup” until after hunting season.

Also for anyone that’s curious; Hoyt is not like a car dealership and won’t give you a loaner while they work on your bow .


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[Supranatural]

I wanted to follow up after my visit to the shop for anyone that was curious and thank everyone for their input.

Also for anyone that’s curious; Hoyt is not like a car dealership and won’t give you a loaner while they work on your bow .


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As a new archer you should look up the web site “Hunter’s Friend” where they have a lot of great info on bows and one of the topics is warranty and returns etc…and explains why this industry is not like a car dealership or returning stuff to big box stores like Walmart.

My opinion is replace all the cables and strings. You will go through a string settling period and if you go with a different builder the material and build process is different from the stock string, since the new cable will have to settle before you can tune it, I’d just as soon have all new cables and string to do it once and be done for this time around. The OEM string may stretch/creep more down the road and not match the amount of change in the new cable so your bow could go out of tune. Plus aftermarket custom cables are far better than OEM strings, they will last longer, be more consistent/stable and have much less stretch, creep and peep rotation. The bow shop will have to press your bow to replace the cable, while they have it on the press it’s not that much more effort to replace the rest. I replace my OEM strings after 900-1000 shots, that way I also have a spare set of strings already settled in in case something happens to the new set I can just pop in the old set as a temporary fix.

 

[stanginthe11s]

hopefully the new cam and strings fix your issue and you get the season out of it at least. are they covering the parts?
and there's only 1 company that I know of that provides a loaner bow, Elite. I own one but luckily never had to use that offer, hopefully they stick by it.

 

[Christopher.Reed]

hopefully the new cam and strings fix your issue and you get the season out of it at least. are they covering the parts?
and there's only 1 company that I know of that provides a loaner bow, Elite. I own one but luckily never had to use that offer, hopefully they stick by it.

Yes, they are covering the parts as it’s under warranty.

My shop was very surprised at the response from Hoyt as they are apparently not the best supplier to work with. They didn’t even ask my name and simply agreed to send the parts and that never happens according to them as they even want broken parts returned. Their implication was that there was an issue with a run of bows which was known by Hoyt. That could of course simply be a case of a group of conspiracy theorist theorizing .

The Hoyt rep was in last week and when they showed it to him, he had never seen anything like it so who knows. All I know is that I haven’t been able to shoot my bow in a week and I’m having some serious withdrawals and practicing my form in front of random mirrors. Reflective windows in front of gas stations aren’t even safe from my addiction .


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